The present disclosure relates to an imaging apparatus and an imaging method and more particularly, to an image apparatus and an imaging method to image an object as a stereoscopic image.
In the related art, a system for simultaneously imaging a common object using two video cameras arranged on left and right sides, simultaneously outputting two kinds of obtained images (a right eye image and a left eye image), and displaying a stereoscopic image has been suggested. However, when the two video cameras are used, a size of an apparatus may increase and it is not practical to use the two video cameras. A base-line length between the two video cameras, that is, an interocular distance of a stereoscopic camera is generally about 65 mm that corresponds to a human interocular distance, regardless of a zoom ratio of a lens. In this case, binocular parallax in a zoomed-up image may increase and this forces information processing different from normal information processing to be executed in a visual system of an observer and causes visual fatigue. When a moving object is imaged using the two video cameras, precise synchronization control of the two video cameras should be performed. However, the synchronization control is very difficult and accurate control of a convergence angle is also very difficult.
A stereoscopic imaging apparatus in which polarization filters polarized to become orthogonal in relation are combined to facilitate adjustment of a lens system to perform stereoscopic imaging and an optical system is shared has been suggested (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Publication (JP-B) No. 6-054991.
A method of performing stereoscopic imaging by an imaging apparatus including two lenses and one imaging unit has been suggested (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2004-309868). The imaging apparatus that is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2004-309868 includes an imaging unit that has pixels, which correspond to integer times of a predetermined number of scanning lines, provided on an imaging surface, a first horizontal component polarizing unit that transmits only a horizontal component in first picture light from an object, and a first vertical component polarizing unit that is arranged at a position apart from the first horizontal component polarizing unit by a predetermined distance and transmits only a vertical component in second picture light from the object. In this case, the horizontal component transmitted by the first horizontal component polarizing unit is converged to the pixels in a predetermined range on the imaging surface and the vertical component transmitted by the first vertical component polarizing unit is converged to the pixels in the remaining range other than the predetermined range. Specifically, a horizontal component polarization filter and a vertical component polarization filter that are arranged to be apart from each other by an interval according to human parallax and two lenses are provided at positions apart from an imaging surface of a CCD by a predetermined distance.